A Study Of The Subtitle Translation Strategies From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

In recent years, due to the cultural exchanges between China and other countriesbecome more frequent, more and more foreign film and television works areintroduced to our country. Meanwhile, the development and popularization of thenetwork, making the transmission of information more efficient, and providing a newchannel for more people to contact the foreign culture which inside the audiovisualworks. Therefore, the number of audiences who tend to watch foreign films and TVare growing. For the Chinese audience, watching foreign film and television works intheir spare time, is a new way to relax, it not only contributes to release the pressure,also plays the role of appreciation and entertainment. At the same time, many Chineseaudiences, especially young people by watching the foreign film works to learn alanguage, learning the native way of speaking contained in the foreign film works inorder to improve their speaking skills. In addition, the film and TV works possesscultural transmission feature which allows the audience to experience its uniqueculture and customs. Thus, as a part of the film translation, subtitle translationbecomes so important. However, compared with Western countries, the domesticresearch on subtitle is lagging behind in this particular area; we are facing the dualchallenge of standardizing and improving theoretical system of subtitle translation andpromoting the competence and level in translation.With the deepening of translation theory and practical application of research,making people aware of the inadequacies of traditional translation theory, thereforeSkopos theory is an important complement to translation theory, with its specialtheoretical and practical significance. Skopos theory as the core of Germany functionalism inspired by the behavior theory, Hans Vermeer the representative ofSkopos theory believes that translation is a purposeful communicative acts; its firstrule is the skopos rule. In the process of translation, the translator can be expected toachieve the purpose according to the flexible use of translation strategies and method,in other words, the purpose of translation determines the translation strategies andmethods. Evaluate the quality of a translation, mainly to see whether it reaches theintended purpose or not. Meanwhile, film subtitling also has some purpose. Its mainpurpose is to provide audience with the most effective and accurate information andmake the film to be fully understood and appreciated by audience, so that moreaudience will like it.In this paper, Skopos theory is chosen as the theoretical framework of theresearch. Meanwhile, the United States sitcom2Broke Girls (season one) which isvery popular is chosen as the object of this case study. And the lines of subtitles of2Broke Girls are the translation version of YYeTs which has a high approval. Theauthor chooses25typical translation lines in the sitcom through watching it over andover again and then analyzes and studies the specific translation strategies andmethods adopted by the subtitler. The study found that the translation strategies andmethods adopted by the subtitler in2Broke Girls mainly including: deduction,amplification and domestication. By taking the flexible and appropriate translationstrategies and methods, the subtitler not only vividly conveys the meaning of thesource language, but takes into account the differences in the target language audience,so as to achieve the purpose of the translation.The whole thesis is composed of five parts: part one is an introduction includingresearch background, research significance, research questions and the structure ofthis thesis. Part two is the literature review of studies on subtitles translation,including a brief introduction of subtitle translation, studies on subtitle translationboth abroad and at home and the summary. Part three is composed of the theoreticalframework of the study and the research methodology of this thesis, including thebrief overview, basic concept and three rules of Skopos theory. In the fourth chapter,subtitle translation strategies will be discussed through a case study of2Broke Girls and illustrated with some examples. And also this part is the main body of the thesis.First of all, there is a brief introduction of the TV series—2Broke Girls. And then thethesis analyzes specific translation strategies and methods in subtitle translation underthe guidance of Skopos theory, including reduction, amplification and domestication.The last part draws the conclusions and sums up the main findings and implications ofthe study as well as puts forward the limitations of the thesis and suggestions forfurther research.